Outgoing Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V D Sathisan, has been appointed as the new Chief Minister of Kerala, eleven days after the poll results were announced on May 4.
Deepa Dasmunshi, General Secretary in charge of Kerala, announced, “The Congress Legislative Party met in Thiruvananthapuram and unanimously authorized the Congress President to choose the CLP leader.
The Congress President held extensive discussions with Congress Parliamentary Party leader (Sonia Gandhi), Leader of the Opposition (Rahul Gandhi) and several other leaders including former CPI(M) presidents. Based on all these discussions, it was decided to appoint VD Sathisan as the leader of the Congress Legislative Party.
According to a senior Congress leader, while Venugopal was the preferred choice for the Congress leadership, especially Rahul Gandhi, Sathisean had public support and had the backing of the party organization and allies including the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).
On Thursday morning, Venugopal met former Congress party president Rahul Gandhi.
Earlier, the chief minister was scheduled to be announced at a meeting of the Kerala Congress Legislative Party, but the party leadership decided to announce the name at 24 Akbar Road in the national capital on Thursday.
